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Neighbor says police were called to YouTuber's home the day he died in wrong-way freeway crash

Posted: 9:59 PM, Aug 29, 2018

Updated:2018-08-30 15:43:17Z

By:
Rachel Bianco

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- A neighbor says San Diego Police were called to the home of YouTube personality McSkillet, whose real name was Trevor Heitmann, the morning of the deadly freeway crash.

According to the CHP, the 18-year-old was in his McLaren sports car when he drove south in the northbound lanes of the 805 freeway near Sorrento Valley Thursday just before 5 p.m. He collided head on with an SUV. Both cars burst into flames.

Aileen Pizarro and her 12-year-old daughter Aryana were killed instantly. Heitmann also died following the crash.

A neighbor, who didn't want to be identified, says she's known the family roughly 15 years,

"He was a normal kid, we went to elementary school with him and everything was totally normal," the neighbor said. "He went off to La Jolla Country Day from then on I mainly saw him playing basketball with a couple of guys in the street, " she said.

She said once Heitmann started getting into online video games, he stopped playing basketball outside.

The neighbor said she saw police at the family's Carmel Valley home Thursday morning just hours before the fatal crash.

"There were probably three police cars, I would guess five officers and they were talking to his mother out in the driveway," she said.

She also noticed an SUV blocking the family's driveway. Heitmann's McLaren sportscar was in the garage and the door was open.

"Now it makes sense. It was actually blocking the McLaren that was sitting inside the garage," she said.

Later that afternoon, she said her husband heard a crash.

"He saw the McLaren zoom away and then it was a little while later that we had the news on and saw that there was a horrific accident," she said.

Shortly after, she said she saw a CHP officer talking to Heitmann's dad.

She says that's when she learned from the boy's father that the family had been worried about the 18-year-old's behavior.

"He told me five days earlier, that Trevor had just snapped, that was the word he used. He started making threats, or started saying he was driving at high speed, down the wrong side of the street and through red lights and he said that's what prompted him to come to San Diego," said the neighbor, who added that the boy's parents were divorced and his dad lived in Colorado.

She said the teenager's dad also shared with her that his son hit the SUV that was blocking the driveway and nearly hit him.

"He said he almost hit me. This was him going back to the context of saying he had just snapped. And I said, 'you mean hit you as a person,' and he said, 'yeah I was standing out here because we were supposed to go to a psychiatrist,'" she said.

San Diego Police have not confirmed that officers were called to the family's home that morning. The family's attorney did not return a request for comment.

The neighbor said she's coming forward because she wants people to know the family tried to get their son help.

"I can understand the police's point of view, that we have to have rights in case somebody is just saying something. My goal is that maybe, I don't know the level of information that police got, hopefully, we'll find that out. These people were obviously very concerned to the degree that they called the police, especially in the face, they are very private people," she said.

Clinical Psychologist Michelle Marie Carcel said forcing a kid who is over 18 to get psychiatric help can be complicated. She said parents need to be clear when calling 911 that they think their child is a danger to themselves or others.

"The most important thing is to really stress that in the call. I am concerned that my child is going to hurt themselves or hurt someone else, that kind of urgency really triggers that response from the officers," said Carcel.

We don't know the circumstances of the call that day or if officers had contact with the 18-year-old.

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